About us

The MAHD Framework was founded by Dorian Simpson with input from companies ranging from Intel to Technicolor. It was born out of two key challenges and a pressing need.

First, traditional NPD processes, like stage-gate systems, have inherent limitations. They start with too many assumptions, foster contention, hinder collaboration, and poorly manage risk—despite years of effort to make them work. Second, while agile methods seemed promising for overcoming these issues, early attempts to apply Scrum and software-based agile practices to hardware development were frustrating and ineffective.

Like many companies, we tried writing user stories, defining features, and adopting rapid prototyping strategies advocated by agile dogmatists. However, we saw the true potential of agile principles: working in short cycles, improving collaboration, validating progress frequently, prioritizing effectively, and empowering teams.

Recognizing the gaps in both traditional processes and software-centric agile methods, we developed the MAHD Framework in 2016. Our goal was to blend the strengths of agile with a flexible set of tools designed for hardware development. Since then, the response has been incredible—we’ve worked with nearly every industry, dozens of companies, and hundreds of teams across six continents to help them go faster, be more efficient, and deliver higher-value solutions.